Lent 11

So back in January, I took a week-long intensive course on the subject of Divine Violence in the book of Joshua. The final paper for that course is due tomorrow.

I started writing it twelve hours ago.

I have spent the majority of my day locked in my room writing this paper, and I'm not even done yet (I'm about 3/4 of the way there). Because of this, there really isn't much for me to blog about tonight. 

Yet as I look back on my day, one moment does stick out. This paper I'm writing is about how texts like the Book of Joshua have been abused too often throughout history due to people not critically engaging with the text. A surface reading of Joshua reads as promoting and glorifying violence and the dispossession of indigenous people's lands. However, after spending serious time wrestling with this book today (and theoughout my studies) I've come to view the text as a criticism of the conquest narrative. 

Unfortunately, my coming to this view doesn't erase the damage that Joshua's narrative has caused throughout history. I realized that a key component of my calling is to make sure that this text, or any text in the Bible for that matter, doesn't cause harm to any person or group of people in the future. The best way to do that is for me to keep working towards my education, wrestling with problematic texts, and preaching first and foremost through a lens of love, inclusion, and reconciliation. 

Today, I saw God in writing a paper. 

Lent 10

We didn't have cable in our house when I was a child.  I remember we had satellite tv for approximately three months one summer during my childhood, but other than that, my brother and I were stuck with 5 channels: CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, and FOX.  This meant that while most of my friends were watching programs like Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Dexter's Lab, or the Powerpuff Girls, we were watching things like ZOOM, Arthur, Sesame Street and whatever else we could watch on PBS Kids.  One of the shows that I have come to realize had the biggest impact on me, however, was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Mister Roger is one of the few people that I would bestow the title of "Saint" onto in a non-Protestant "oh we're all saints" manner of speaking.  His work has touched countless lives, and the more I learn about him, the more awe inspiring he is.  For example, take the time he testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications in 1969 response to threats to cut funding to public broadcasting from President Nixon:

Fred Rogers treated everyone he interacted with, especially the children with whom he worked, with respect and dignity.  Reports say that he treated you like you personally mattered to him.

Today marks twelve years since Mister Rogers died.  As a result, I spent some time viewing some of his old videos and reading some of his stories.  He was a giant of a man in a relatively small (143 pounds actually) body, and the world is without a doubt better because of his life.

I like you just the way you are too, Mister Rogers.

And to anyone who may be reading this, I like you just the way you are too.

Today, I saw God in the life and legacy of Fred Rogers.

Lent 9

Every year on Super Bowl Sunday, my undergraduate campus ministry would have a faith questions service.  This service, like most elements of worship, had a practical and a theological purpose.

Because our weekly worship services were typically Sunday nights at 7pm, which is smack dab in the middle of the Super Bowl broadcast, our chaplain decided that it would be better to have two services; one at 5pm for those who wanted to see the game, and one at the regular time because there was no way he was going to let something as insignificant as the Super Bowl force him to not have church at the regular time.  So rather than preach the same sermon twice (or preach two different sermons), it was decided that the sermon for that Sunday would be him answering questions submitted to him ahead of time that he had not previously seen (one of the students would collect the questions and organize them).  That way, the two services could be different enough without him having to prepare two different messages.

However, there was also a deeper theological rationale to Faith Questions Sunday.  He would frame the question/answer time by saying something along the lines of "Faith Questions is more than just the name of this service.  It's also a statement, as in 'faith causes us to question'".  The rationale being that an unexamined and unquestioned faith is not faith at all, and ultimately, that having doubts and questions does not make one a "bad Christian".  These questions, and the uncertainty they cause, are instead to be celebrated.  This is why he would also end the service by saying that the congregation should not take his answers as authoritative, but they should keep asking them and struggling with them.  Uncertainty is good.

Which brings me to today.

If you were on any kind of social media today (Facebook, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Tumblr, etc), you probably saw a picture of a dress.  In fact, you probably saw a picture of this dress:

http://swiked.tumblr.com/image/112166688660

It must have been a slow news day, because this dress (and more importantly, what color(s) it is) is seemingly all anyone can talk about.  It seems as if people can't decide whether this dress is white with gold lace or blue with black lace.  Exasperating the problem is the fact that the lighting and overall picture quality is bad, which only adds to the confusion.

Now, when I first saw this picture, I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, because clearly it's white and gold.  However, over time as I would look at the picture (especially when I saw different portions of the dress isolated, especially just the bottom portion) I started to see blue and black (which is the true color of the dress when viewed in proper lighting).  This led to a mini-crisis of faith if you will.  The dress was clearly white and gold.  I would have bet anything on it, I was so sure.  To see it slowly transform into blue and black shook me more than a stupid picture of a stupid dress should.

But then I remembered the lesson I heard every year in undergrad.  Uncertainty is ok.  Fundamentalism is not something to build a faith on, because if one thing gets disproven, the whole thing can come crashing down.  Faith like a trampoline (that can stretch and give) will last longer than faith like a solid brick wall.  Architects utilize this principle everyday.  When designing a really tall skyscraper, there has to be some allowance for the building to move a little bit with the wind, because if the building were completely solid and firm all the way to the top, the strong winds would eventually overcome the building and cause it to snap like a twig (which, funnily enough, is another illustration I could use, but I'll spare you).

Maybe this is a stupid God-sighting and me just trying to cash in on a viral topic to get more page views.  But the purpose of this Lenten discipline is to see God in the everyday, mundane, stupid, and insignificant aspects of my life, and it doesn't get more mundane, stupid, and insignificant than a debate over what color a dress is.  

Today, I saw God in a stupid picture of a stupid dress.

Lent 8

I'm a huge Methodist nerd. I'm also a huge music nerd. The natural intersection of those two subject matters is Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley. 

For those who don't know, Charles Wesley penned the words to somewhere between 5,000 and 9,000 hymns during his life, about 500 of which are still widely sung in churches today. I have a professor in Seminary who is fond of saying that hymns are portable theology. That is to say that hymns take large and complex theological ideas and condense them into something that is easy to grasp and take to heart for the layperson. This is especially true of Charles Wesley's texts, which rely heavily first on scripture, but also the theological ideas of his brother, John. In fact, my professor argues (and I'm inclined to agree) that Methodism would not have taken off if it weren't for Charles' hymn texts. 

As I mentioned, Wesley wrote a number of hymns that we still know and love today. “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?”  “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”. “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”. “Love Divine, All Love's Excelling”. And yet, when people talk about THE Wesley hymn, chances are that they are talking about "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing”. This is such an important hymn in the life of the Methodist Church, that the first three entries in our Hymnal are versions of this hymn (the hymn in English, the full hymn text, and the hymn translated into Spanish). 

This hymn comes from a larger poem written by Charles Wesley. The full poem is seventeen verses long. Most people will go their whole lives without reading or singing the full poem, but then again, most people don't take classes with Eileen Guenther. Today, in our class on hymnody, we sang all seventeen verses. Eileen had prefaced the singing of it by saying that some of her previous students had described singing all sixteen verses as a mountaintop experience. I'm not going to go that far, but I will say that there's just something about singing “harlots and publicans and thieves” that's...well just special. Special enough to be my God sighting for the day. I'm going to attach the full poem below, and I really encourage you to read it (maybe even sing it). I hope it proves to be as great a joy for you as it did for me. 

Today, I saw God in a really long hymn. 

Lent 7

Man alive, I'm exhausted. 

I woke up this morning at 5am and could not fall back asleep for the life of me until 7:30/8 (and even then, I had to wake up for real at 9 to get ready and catch a 9:45 bus). As a result, I spent most of the day in a fog, but there were still some pretty great things that happened today. 

Worship at Wesley's chapel was on fire this morning with the Greater Washington DS preaching a very prophetic message for Wesley's annual MLK remembrance service. Then in the evening I was in a masterclass with the Chamber Singers that took all the great stuff we did yesterday and brought it to a next level. 

Yet as I lie in my warm bed writing this out, I can't help but just feel grateful for the ability to put my feet up, close my eyes, and get some much needed sleep. 

Today, I see God in the back of my eyelids. 

Lent 6

I almost had to do two posts in a row about music.  You see, today I had rehearsal for Chamber Singers, and it was really rocking.  Everything was clicking and we were making some really fantastic music, and that is a God sighting in and of itself.  But, since I posted about awesome music yesterday, I'll post something else.

The past two days the church I work at has had a planning "retreat" to guide where the church will be heading in the next 1-2 years.  And while I am one of the rare Methodist nerds that gets really excited about things like Annual Conference, Roberts Rules of Order, etc, it can definitely take a lot out of me as well.  These types of events are usually full of petty bickering over small details that aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things, and while this two-day retreat was definitely not the worst I've seen in my time as a Methodist, it certainly wasn't immune from it either.

But I came to realize that the only reason that bickering tends to pop up at these types of events is because everyone is so passionate about why they're there, and this church is no exception.  This church has made radical hospitality one of the three main components of its mission statement, and I saw an abundance of radical hospitality these past two days extended towards myself.  First and foremost, the fact that I—someone who is not an official member of this congregation and only directs the children's choir and is the tenor section leader/soloist in the adult choir—was even invited and encouraged to attend and be a part of this session by a number of people speaks to that.  There was even an instance tonight when I was sitting on the periphery of the table where everyone else was, because all of the seats had been taken, and someone went out of her way to make space for me to sit at the table because that's where I "belonged".  And to top it all off, three different people came up to me after the session adjourned to make sure that I had a ride home (yes mom, I took one of them up on their offer).  This spirit of radical hospitality has become embedded in the members of this community, and as long as it continues to remain committed to it, in addition to the other elements of their mission statement of pursuing justice and transforming the world, I have no doubt that this church will continue to thrive in not just the next 1-2 years, but also the next 5-10 years, 10-20 years, and beyond.

You may call me a dreamer or an idealist.  So sue me.

Today, I saw God in radical hospitality.

Lent 5

Maybe I'm biased, but I think music is the most powerful force humanity has. Music can entertain. Music can inform. Music can heal. Music can empower. Music can change the world. 

I had a professor in undergrad who was fond of saying that music was the second most efficient language (only next to binary code), because by utilizing only twelve notes, one can express the entirety of human emotion.

It's been a really long day. I left my apartment at quarter to 8 this morning, and I didn't get back until 10 this evening. But through music, whether it be teaching my children's choir new music, singing a beautiful and powerful anthem in church, humming tunes stuck in my head, or listening to fantastic choirs perform everything from Bruckner to Hogan at Choral Arts Society's annual MLK Tribute concert, I was able to get through it all. 

Today, I saw God in music. 

Lent 4

So today it snowed pretty hard in the DMV...well hard by DC standards anyways. As a result, I spent most of the day inside doing some work, baking some cookies, playing a board game, and mostly just enjoying the pretty big snowflakes coming down. It was a quintessential snow day (except for it being on a Saturday meaning that there was no school to cancel), and it was fabulous. 

Today, I saw God in the snow. 

Lent 3

So for those who are following this Lenten journey and want to know, today was a better day. 

Just like yesterday, I can't put my finger on one thing that made today better. All I do know is that even though I'm lying in bed with an aching body and wheezing lungs from my run a couple hours ago, I'm feeling pretty good. I'll take that as a win. 

Today, I saw God in a better day.

Lent 2

Blah. 

That's how I've felt all day. I don't know if it's the cold weather or if I just got up on the wrong side of the bed, but I've been just been in a foul mood today. I can't think of any one particular thing that was especially terrible. I guess part of it is that some of the things that I usually depend on to give me joy, left me feeling frustrated, so all I was left with was the tedium of my day-to-day life. 

As a result, I had a real difficult time figuring out what I was going to post today. It's tough to see God when you feel like you've got your own personal grey cloud following you darkening all the light. I thought about posting about my posessed heater that got me to go to the gym this morning. I thought about posting something about body positivity (I'm sure I'll get to that soon though). 

Yet as I look back on my day, I realize there was a glimmer of joy that burst through all the grey. I got a note that was absolutely lovely and affirming. I didn't know how much I was going to need it when I got it, but reading those words provides me with some clarity as to who  I'm called to be and gave me a moment of respite in this drear day. 

Today I saw God in kind, affirming words. 

Lent 1

Dust you were.  Dust you are.  To dust you will return.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent that leads up to Easter.  While dust is on everybody's (or at least everybody who goes to Ash Wednesday services) mind, I thought it would be a good time to dust off (see what I did there?) this blog and start posting again.

A couple of years ago, I took on the practice of posting a God-sighting once a day on this blog, and at the suggestion of one of my Covenant Discipleship group members, I'm going to take it on again this year.  For those who weren't following me on this journey two years ago (or for those who are not familiar with American University's United Methodist-Protestant Community, from which I have taken this term), a God-sighting is when you see God breaking through into our life and working in us and around us.  That said, God-sightings don't have to be large and grandiose events of biblical proportions; the point of God-sightings are to see the mundane, day-to-day moments as God-filled.

So with that in mind, here is my God-sighting for today.

I have a love-hate relationship with mornings.  On the one hand, I find the early morning to be still and peaceful.  There's nothing quite like stepping out into the cool morning air and watching the sunrise.  On the other hand, I love sleeping, and sometimes (ok, most of the time) that love for sleep causes me to just keep pressing the snooze button on my alarm.  You can see my dilemma.

But this morning was different.  This morning when my alarm went off, I got up and pressed the snooze button.  But as I was making my way back to my bed, I somehow had enough wherewithal to remember that I was planning on going to an Ash Wednesday service this morning.  As it turned out, if I had kept pressing the snooze button, I would have missed the necessary buses I needed to get on in order to make it to church on time.

So today, I saw God in a rare moment of clarity in the wee hours of the morning.